Artist: Mary Gauthier
Title: The Foundling
Label: Proper Records
Genre: Folk
Bitrate: 176kbit av.
Time: 00:46:25
Size: 66.68 mb
Rip Date: 2010-04-09
Str Date: 2010-05-17
01. The Foundling 3:39
02. Mama Here, Mama Gone 4:02
03. Goodbye 4:15
04. Sideshow 4:17
05. Interlude 1 0:27
06. Blood Is Blood 5:17
07. March 11, 1962 5:47
08. Walk In The Water 4:51
09. Interlude 2 0:46
10. Sweet Words 4:18
11. The Orphan King 4:47
12. Another Day Borrowed 3:33
13. Coda 0:26
Release Notes:
Abandoned as a baby by her unwed mother at an ophanage in New Orleans,
American folksinger Mary GauthierÆs life has been a tough one. She left
home at 15, got into drugs and trouble and spent her 18th birthday in
jail.
All this provided plenty of material for her earlier albums, but with
her latest one The Foundling, which she was in Sydney to promote
earlier this week, the 48-year-old singer-songwriter has put her life
into perspective.
In it she sings - or speaks, rather - about a meeting with her birth
mother when she was 45. ôI was still her shameful secret. She had no
desire to meet me.ö That song is called March 11, 1962 - the day she
was born.
The lasting effects of abandonment are discussed in Sweet Words, a
haunting tune about a relationship gone wrong. ôLooking back now I can
see that it was actually about the mother IÆve never known,ö she says.
This collection is brave territory for Gauthier, and although the mood
is sombre and her voice has a plaintive edge to it, itÆs not all doom
and gloom. Sideshow is a lot more uppy, with a honky-tonky piano and a
trombone to give it a vaudeville atmosphere. Some tracks have a country
influence, or even cajun with a use of piano accordion.
Blood Is Blood is a very strong track with some nice smoky electric
guitar and a steady beat behind GauthierÆs acoustic fingerstyle guitar.
However these are all songs driven by their lyrics and the emotive
subject matter. They are honest without being self-pitying, but you
have to be in the right mood for them.
sire@hush.ai